Credit: GC Photography

By Contributor Carolyn Bechard

I admit it! I was a complete cloth diaper skeptic when I had my first child. I distinctly remember someone mentioning the idea of them during my first pregnancy and I completely shrugged them off. Two years later, we are a full time cloth diaper using family. We use them at home, at night and when we are out and about during the day.

So in the hopes that you will be more informed then I was, I am going to debunk several cloth diapering myths that may be keeping you from going cloth.

1. You have to touch poop.
This is probably the number one comment I get from people when I tell them we cloth diaper. It’s like they think I’m walking around all day with it constantly on my hands. Believe me, if that was the case I probably wouldn’t be cloth diapering either. My hands don’t get any messier then they would if I were using a disposable. In fact, your hands may even be cleaner, because I have yet to have a blow out in cloth.

2. You won’t save that much money.
If you take only one thing out of reading this article, take this. You will absolutely save money by switching to cloth diapers! The average person spends nearly $2000 buying disposables for one child. A good cloth diapering package will cost you around $500 and can be used on multiple children. For example, I have two boys aged two years and four months. Because we went with a one size diaper system, they are essentially using the same ones. Diapers aren’t even in our monthly budget anymore! And we don’t have to make any last minute runs to a store because we’ve run out of diapers.

3. You’ll end up doing way more laundry.
I wash my diapers every 2-3 days. It takes one hot wash followed by two cold rinses. Is that really much more laundry? Not in my world.

4. It’ll add extra time to diaper changes.
Cloth diapers are nothing like they use to be. They come with snaps, velcro and various inserts that can be flushed down the toilet or stuffed in a pocket. There are tons of different options out there and most involve the same amount of work as changing a disposable.

5. Disposable diapers aren’t that bad for the environment.
Do you know what the number one thing taking up space in our landfills is? Yup, that’d be disposable diapers. They take hundreds of years to decompose and release toxins into the environment. You know those warnings that come in Tampons boxes about toxic shock syndrome? Those same chemicals are being used in the diapers we put against our babies skin. How scary is that?

So there you have it folks. I hope I have laid some of the cloth diapering myths to rest for you. My best advice is to really do your research. Evaluate exactly how much you are spending on disposable diapers a month and look into cloth diapering brands and systems. I know it can be overwhelming, but if you know someone who cloth diapers, ask them questions! We are usually more than happy to share our thoughts.